The air in the subterranean world was as thick as ink, heavy with a metallic, bloody stench. Su Yao and her companions descended the rune-covered stairs, each step causing the Azure Heaven Sword to tremble with increasing violence. The silhouette of a palace loomed in the distance, bathed in the eerie light of ghostly green flames. The palace gates were adorned with lifelike carvings depicting the Great War of Gods and Demons, and a phantom of the Demon Lord hovered above the dome. Its mangled hand phantom-gripped a pulsing black heart—the very core of power for this entire subterranean realm.
"Watch out! These runes are absorbing our Spiritual Power!" Yun Shang suddenly cried out as fine cracks appeared on the surface of her Bagua Compass. The group realized with horror that the runes on either side of the stairs were greedily devouring the spiritual light radiating from them; even the White Tiger Phantom around Lin Yu was growing transparent. Zhao Ya drew her golden sword, and though its golden Sanskrit light swept across the runes, it only stirred up a pungent, acrid black smoke. "Normal attacks are useless! We have to find the Array Core!"
Before the words had even faded, the ground split open, and countless bone spears erupted from the earth. Su Yao swung her sword to parry, the blue light colliding with the bone spears with the sharp ring of metal striking stone. Lin Yu stepped onto his own afterimages, his short blade striking into the cracks like a viper, only to se…
Chapter 244